Shelves for carrying items are a natural feature of consumer goods stores, such as grocery stores, drug stores and the like. Such shelves are constructed of plastic, metal or other suitable material and are generally designed to be as functional as possible even in the absence of aesthetically pleasing or eye-catching features. These shelves are usually of a fixed depth and therefore, carry a predetermined maximum number of items in the space from the front to the back of the shelf. The predetermined maximum number of items depends, of course, on the size of that item.
One disadvantage of shelves of this type is that the predetermined maximum number of items can not easily be changed for any given item and it is not possible to carry additional items on the space allotted for that item on the shelf even at the time of a promotional effort for that item. Consequently, a heavily promoted item can quickly appear to be out of stock.
Another disadvantage of this type of functional shelf is that items are not displayed in an aesthetically pleasing or eye-catching manner. Each store has row upon row of the same type of functional shelves and there are rarely any distinguishing features to attract a customer to a particular item or display.